Chateau Belair-Monange Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2009

Medium intensity baked plum aromatics, enticing and open, laced with campfire, cinnamon, incense, pumice stone, salted cracker, fennel, saffron, blackberry and sage. Great quality, giving the limestone kick, tightrope walking across the palate, a brilliant wine, juicy and individual, leaning in to its character, with a joyful welcome. 50% new oak for ageing.

The sophomore 2009 Belair-Monange has been variable from bottle to bottle so I was taken aback at the impressive performance here. It has a very opulent bouquet with plush red fruit, patisserie, candied orange peel, fig and dates. This is very open and expressive, very gourmand in style and though atypical, it is very seductive. The palate is almost viscous on the entry with plush red fruit, a touch of black pepper and oregano, slightly medicinal in style but very persistent. Blind, I thought it might be Tertre-Rôteboeuf but it turned out not to be. Still, this is just a superb showing. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.

Love the soft and velvety tannin with the milk chocolate and fruit character. Full and silky. Long and delicious. So fine. Best wine from this estate in decades. Maybe ever. Best after 2017.

This extraordinary terroir, now exploited by Edouard Moueix, the son of Christian, seems to be coming to life in a dramatic fashion. Never a hedonistic wine, but very intellectual, the 2009 suggests a liqueur of crushed rocks intermixed with black currants and black cherries. Still somewhat closed, medium to full-bodied, and impressive rather than seductive, this is a structured wine that needs to be forgotten for at least a decade, and then drunk over the following 30+ years. If readers are looking for the quintessential example of a terroir-dominated wine, this is Lesson 101 in terroir.

Lively deep ruby-purple. Rather inexpressive nose hints at a calcaire purity to its delicate aromas of floral red berries and minerals. Rich and chewy if a bit backward and sullen today, with pure flavors of blackberry, minerals and licorice. Dry, classic and very light on its feet, this should gain in complexity with elevage Finishes with a chalky calcaire quality and hints of spicy red fruits. This is an archetypical example of a mineral-driven, leaner style of wine that can get overlooked in blind tastings.

Lively deep ruby-purple. Rather inexpressive nose hints at a calcaire purity to its delicate aromas of floral red berries and minerals. Rich and chewy if a bit backward and sullen today, with pure flavors of blackberry, minerals and licorice. Dry, classic and very light on its feet, this should gain in complexity with elevage Finishes with a chalky calcaire quality and hints of spicy red fruits. This is an archetypical example of a mineral-driven, leaner style of wine that can get overlooked in blind tastings.